NEVILLE, Ohio — The Clermont County Dog Warden and the sheriff's office are investigating after they — and WCPO 9 — received an anonymous tip about at least one monkey being kept in a trash-riddled cage at a home near Neville, Ohio.
The tip included multiple videos showing the house, which appears to have an attached structure similar to a screened-in porch. The videos show that structure is enclosed by a metal fence. It appears a monkey is living inside the structure.
The monkey can be seen clearly in the video, running along wall shelves and other platforms installed in the cage, though it's also filled with garbage and other debris.
The house on Neville Penn Schoolhouse Road is now part of an active investigation, Chief Dog Warden Tim Pappas told us, though he declined to comment further. In an email WCPO 9 obtained, Deputy Dog Warden Sarah Steele says officials have visited the home and the investigation is ongoing.
The animal did not appear to be in obviously poor health, though its surroundings are covered in debris, including dirty fabrics, shredded paper and a bunk bed with a grayed, dirty mattress on the top bunk.
There is also what appears to be dirt or fecal matter on the walls and ceiling of the enclosure.
You can watch the videos WCPO 9 received in the player below:
We spoke with one of the home's owners, who said they have two monkeys living on the property. They did not tell us where those animals were being kept. The homeowner also said they'd just moved in, though the Clermont County Auditor's website shows the property was last sold in 2007.
WCPO 9 also obtained records from the Clermont County Sheriff's Office that show deputies have responded to the home for incidents involving animals as far back as 2008.
In 2008, an offense report from the sheriff's office shows the property owners "allowed monkeys to escape without and didn't notify the proper authorities within one hour."
In 2010, a neighbor called the sheriff's office when he came home from work and discovered a dead kangaroo in his driveway, according to an incident report. That was just one of two kangaroos that had escaped the property; neighbors told deputies they'd seen the kangaroos being chased up the road by dogs.
In 2012, deputies again responded to the home after "exotic animals" escaped and the homeowner did not contact authorities within an hour. In that incident, three monkeys escaped the home but remained inside a fenced-in portion of the property.
In 2021, deputies arrived at the home after one of the homeowners reported "a monkey had bitten her finger off." The homeowner's finger was re-attached at the hospital, but deputies began looking in to whether the monkeys, which are Capuchins, require a permit to own.
The homeowner told deputies they no longer owned any animals other than the Capuchins "and advised they are not restricted in the state of Ohio."
The deputy noted in the incident report that he contacted the prosecutor's office and a wildlife officer, but appeared to get few answers. Weeks after the initial incident, the deputy noted he spoke with Mike King, a dangerous wildlife and animal health inspector, who advised him "that Capuchin monkeys are exempt through the State of Ohio as Dangerous Animals and do not require any registration."
Over a month after the monkey bite was reported, the deputy received written confirmation in an email "confirming no permit requirements." That email was not included in the records WCPO received from the sheriff's office.
WCPO reached out to the Ohio Department of Agriculture and received the following statement regarding the ownership of Capuchin monkeys in Ohio:
The Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Dangerous Wild Animal (DWA) Program is responsible for regulating the possession of dangerous wild animals and restricted snakes. A permit must be obtained through ODA to own an animal considered to be a DWA. That list can be found here.
In the state of Ohio, Capuchin monkeys are not considered to be dangerous wild animals, meaning ODA has no regulatory authority regarding ownership. If there are concerns for the wellbeing of any animal, the responsibility falls to the local authorities and/or humane society.
